Jordan here: Right now we've traveled to Wa for a day trip to do some banking. We have no bank in our village, go figure. Lots of stuff has happened, lets see if I can remember some of them. So apparently on Friday nights, our village has dances. Now you may think that refers to traditional dancing or something very African...nope, very high school dance-ish. We have been bugged to attend each week and so we decided to go once. They start about 8-9pm (its been dark for 2-3 hours already) which is about our bed time. But we trudge over there anyway. We walk up to the compound and roll through the gate (keep in mind this is open air and pretty much outside still) and the place is full. Nothing is as crazy as the white people coming to dance so, the zoo opens and we're back on display. The people running the dance use a generator to power these giant speakers and sound system that is playing very loudly. Keep in mind this is right in the middle of the village bumping techno and hip hop music til about 2am with little kids and elders supposedly trying to sleep right next door. But then they kick out all the kids and the little square is nearly empty. Apparently they charge 50 pesewa to join the dance inside. However, just outside the wall, the music is just as loud so most kids just sit out there. And actually in our village 50 pesewa is a lot of money. When the same amount will buy breakfast for both Sarah and I, most people didn't want to pay. Eventually after kinda dancing with the 6 people that had paid, we decided our weak legs were ready for bed. Trying to leave, we got a lot more grief because they were trying tell us things were just getting started. Well, maybe next time then they should start earlier for old man and woman folis.
Most of my work on the house is done. I just finished up building some shelves so finally we can put all of our belongings up off the floor. This seems like not such a big deal. However, I needed to measure the dimensions for what we needed, bike the 25 minutes into a town that sold wood, barter with the seller, picked the least warped and rotted ones, do some drawings to know with the lengths provided how many I needed, move the 4 17 foot boards over to the carpenter to have them cut, argue with him about how to actually cut them the way I wanted, check his work to actually have the edges straightened, haul it over to the place where the vehicles get loaded to head back to our village, buy nails that I think will work, borrow a saw, bike back to our village and haul all the boards back to the house. Then my incredibly novice carpentry skills go into action. The combination of warped boards, poor cutting, and wrong nail sizes made the first day of building quite frustrating. I went out and got the right size nails (back at the next village) used some leftover "carpet" from reflooring our place to cover the shelves, and pounded the things together, and voiila! Shelves.
I also fixed up the bathing area (I don't really call it the bathroom since there's no running water) by reflooring, hanging a shower curtain, putting in a small shelf, and a shower mat. By now, the garden is rolling. The cucumbers, acorn squash, zuchini squash, basil, green pepper, one green bean plant, pumpkins, and maybe some cabbage are all on their way. My moringa tree nursery is growing too. About 11 trees are started in water satchet bags which would otherwise be trash. I've tried applying some of my organic nitrogen fertilizer. We'll see how it looks soon. I will make some liquid manure when this runs out.
I have started going to school on a few days with Sarah and the other day I saw the Form 3 students (about 9th graders) sitting without a teacher and asked what they were learning about in science. So I picked up the text book and gave the lesson on animal production. So we told the normal science teacher that I'd be happy to teach some classes when he couldn't be there. So of course when I showed up to help Sarah proctor her first test, the normal teacher sent a student over to come get me to teach the class. Of course I refused and basically told him that he is there and should teach his own class instead of sitting under the mango tree. While proctoring, Sarah gave me a red pen to help her with cheating patrol. Anyone who is seen with their eyes on someone else's paper gets a red mark on their paper. 3 marks and they get a zero and kicked out of class. I gave our 5 marks total between the 2 classes. Sarah gave a mark to a girl that proceeded to color over the red with her blue pen to make it look like she didn't have a red mark. Sarah saw this and gave her an extra mark for it.
Right now, I haven't gotten a chance to visit farms because apparently this is the worst time for insects. When things dry up a bit, I'll go and see some places with some trustworthy, open-minded farmers that may want to try some of my ideas. Until then, I want to keep learning the language every day, meeting more people, and get more involved with the students. I really see them as a potential difference maker for the community and we can make a difference with them.
Well, off to some breakfast. Until next time, mua (small time (aka talk to you soon)).